Best locally owned ice cream company

Island Homemade Ice Cream (Grand Isle)

At the end of summer 2004, Patty and Gary Sundberg closed up their Grand Isle snack bar for the season. But they decided to keep making the ice cream they sold there, and Island Homemade Ice Cream was born. The couple now does everything from developing new flavors to packaging and delivering the frozen treat to a smattering of groceries, restaurants and scoop shops in Grand Isle, Franklin and Chittenden counties.

In addition to standard favorites, Island produces unusual flavors such as Maple Habanero and a seasonal pear sorbet. This year the company has been working on a blueberry sorbet in conjunction with Citizen Cider and produced a small specialty run of Arrow Head — a vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and a raspberry swirl — for the town of Milton’s 250th anniversary.